


Disguises

by ceresilupin



Category: Star Wars: Clone Wars (TV 2008)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-29
Updated: 2011-07-29
Packaged: 2017-10-21 21:58:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/230317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceresilupin/pseuds/ceresilupin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene from the Slaves of the Republic comic series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disguises

**Author's Note:**

> The 'underage' warned for is really subtle, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

A series of thuds and bangs sounded from the wardroom the Jedi shared. Rex, waiting impatiently by the hatch in his borrowed slaver armor, allowed himself an impatient sigh. “Ahsoka?”

Ahsoka’s young voice sounded muffled. “Hang on!” she shouted back. “Just – having – some technical –“ There came a beat of silence, and then the whisk of metal on metal and the muffled thump of a Togruta rear hitting the deck. Ahsoka finished her sentence with a flurry of swearwords.

Rex checked his wrist chrono. General Skywalker’s last communication had only come in three minutes ago, but it had sounded urgent, and Ahsoka had only promised to take a minute. He made his voice briskly military in the hopes it would chivvy her along. “Commander? We’re coming up on the—”

The door to the wardwoom hissed open. Ahsoka was there, clad in her usual skirt, but with the boots and leggings discarded. One hand and skinny arm were held protectively over her bare chest, her other was planted on her hip.

Unlike everything else she wore, her glare was not skimpy. It was in fact just short of lethal. Rex choked, “Never mind.”

The enticing – and terrifying – mirage was whisked away by the closing door . Rex leaned against a nearby bulkhead – out of boredom, he reassured himself, and not from a need of support – and ventured carefully, “What was wrong with your other disguise?” Her other _slave_ disguise, a fact that made him uneasy. He hadn’t realized how many sentients in the galaxy warranted even less regard than he and his brothers. He hadn’t wanted to.

“There’s been a change in the plan,” Ahsoka said, still muffled.

“There has?” The General hadn’t mentioned anything to him. . . .

Ahsoka finally finished and joined him in the main hold. She was now clad in some slinky black thing that revealed only slightly less skin than her usual garb; a foot or so of expensive black silk fell from her hips, slit up the sides, clinging to every dip and curve of rust-red thigh. She even smelled slightly different, floral and sophisticated, like the General’s close friend the Senator.

Rex wisely processed these changes in silence. “I’ve decided to change my cover,” Ahsoka said hurriedly, darting about the ship in search of something. “The old one wasn’t working.”

“Uh.” Rex discarded several replies. “Where’d you get the clothes?”

“Master Skywalker has a special wardrobe for disguises,” Ahsoka said airily. She stuck her head in a crate that was bigger than she was and began rustling around.

Rex decided not to ask why General Skywalker had a wardrobe full of women’s clothing on his personal ship. “It looks all right,” he said, in an attempt to sound professional. Had she decided to play the role of potential buyer? Should he be donning a slave disguise of his own?

 _Just wear your usual armor, that will do._ He batted the thought away.  “But the necklace doesn’t match the rest.”

“Got it!” Ahsoka reemerged. “And it’s not a necklace.”

“But then what –“ His voice scaled up a notch. “Sir, what’s that chain for?”

Ahsoka grinned at him, baring the sharp little canines she usually kept covered, and slapped one end of the chain into his palm. The other, she fastened to her – collar, he realized distantly, as if from far away. It wasn’t a necklace, it was a collar. Her whole getup, the skimpy and seductive costume, her sweet smell – it was a collar.

 _No, no, no, no._ “Commander—” he attempted.

Ahsoka could read him like a book. “It’s just a disguise, Rex,” she said, sounding much older than her years. More womanly. Was she trying to reassure him, or was she already getting into her role? “For the mission.”

Someone had replaced his stomach with a hollow pit, and he suspected it was her, and that betrayal hurt worse than almost anything else could. “I don’t like this,” he said – blurted, really, which was unprofessional of him – but it was better than voicing the dread he felt. He knew better than to lecture her about the dangers she delivered herself into, she’d taught him that the hard way, but this was different, this was worse.

This time, she was using _him_ to deliver her. Like . . . he didn’t know what like. But he hated it.

“Ahsoka, they’re going to think you’re a slave,” he said.

“Actually, I will be a slave.” She held out her right hand; Rex recognized the pose of a Jedi summoning something with the Force. “I can’t blow my cover this early in the game.”

“I won’t do this,” Rex said, through clenched teeth.

Ahsoka didn’t try to make it an order. Instead, she waited, and a heartbeat later her lightsaber flew into the room, returning itself to its mistress. She extended it to him.

Rex moved uncertainly. Did she need help fastening it to her disguise, or . . . grim with sudden understanding, he accepted the weapon and concealed it within his own armor. This Zyggerrian rig was primitive as all hell, but it contained enough electronics to mask the subtle signature of a lightsaber. He hoped.

“I trust you,” she said, wide eyes shining with faith and more than a little fear. “Now. Let’s go help Master Skywalker.”

He swallowed, wrapping the chain around his hand several times. It clinked against the metal of Ahsoka’s costume and made his gut churn.  But she trusted him. She trusted him. No matter what anyone else thought about them, slave and slaver, Jedi and clone, they knew the truth; she trusted him and he trusted her. A small, secret rebellion, insignificant when compared to some, but. . . .

Rex took a deep breath. His voice sounded thin to his own ears. “I’m right behind you, Commander.”


End file.
